THE SOURCES OF THE NARRATIVE. XXV be pleased to entrust to me* From the Russians, especially, I hope that I may receive communications of this kind. Their defence of Sebastopol ranges high in the annals of warfare ; and I imagine that the more the truth is known, the more it will redound to the honour of the Kussian arms. I do not in general appeal for proof to my personal observation, hut I have departed from this abstinence in two or three instances where it seemed to me that I might prevent a waste of controversial energy by saying at once that the thing told had been seen or heard by myself. AVith regard to the portion of the work which is founded upon unpublished documents and private in- formation, I had intended at one time— not to give the documents nor the names of my informants, nor the words they have written or spoken, but — to indicate the nature of the statements on which I rely ; as, for instance, to say in notes at the foot of a page, 'The ' Eaglan Papers/ ' Letter from an officer engaged/ ' Oral statement made to me by one who was present/ and the like. But, upon reflection, I judged that I could not venture to do this. When a published authority is referred to, any want of correspondence between the assertion and the proof can be detected by a reader who takes the trouble to ascend to the originals ; but I do not like to assert that a document
- This sentence was published in 1863, and long before the appear-
ance of my 4th and 5th volumes. It is only to information touching the period between ' Inkerman ' and the close of June 1855, that the above invitation would now apply.
